'Mary Poppins' runs through next weekend at the Butterfield

Jul. 28—Butterfield Stage Players' production of "Mary Poppins" takes inspiration from both the books by P. L. Travers and the Disney movie to create something different.

"I've loved Mary Poppins since I was little," said Hayley Colwell, who is going into her senior year at GHS and is playing the titular character in "Mary Poppins." "I have a mix of what Mary Poppins was in the movies and what my childhood brain thought of Mary Poppins, so I've tried to put that energy into her."

"There's more songs," said Drake Landrum, who recently graduated from Gainesville High School and is playing George Banks. "People in the audience are going to know a lot of the songs, but then there's going to be some different songs that people probably won't know."

This production is part of the youth theatre program at Butterfield, having all of the cast be 18 years old and younger.

"It's been amazing; this is my first community theatre show, so it's amazing to work with all of the different age ranges," said Colwell. "I've never been able to work with kids before, but they're really fun."

"I think it's the most fun I've had doing a show because it's my last youth show here," said Landrum. "I haven't done a Butterfield show in about two years, but I've been doing competitions like One-Act Play and Musicals at the high school, so adjusting back to community theatre was a little bit weird, but I was able to jump back into it."

As with any show, there have been challenges, but there has been a lot of excitement as well.

"It's been difficult, but it's also been fun," said Emmet Bayer, a recent graduate of Sacred Heart Catholic School in Muenster who is playing Bert. "I've had to work more on some of my songs and making it work, but then whenever it does work, it's great."

"This is the best sounding cast I've ever had," said the director of this production and of children's theatre at Butterfield, Shannon Riviore. "We are fortunate enough to have some extremely talented people in this community, and they all came together for the show in the right roles at the right time, and I'm just in awe. They sound incredible and it just blows my mind."

Tickets were sold out in advance for opening night on Thursday, and seats for the first weekend were few as this article was written. Tickets are available on the Butterfield website at butterfieldstage.org, or by calling the box office at (940) 665-1284 on Monday or Wednesday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Performances are July 29, 30 and August 4, 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. and July 30, 31 and August 6 and 7 at 2:30 p.m.